First jobs, and inauspicious (however fortunately inconspicuous) beginnings . . .

Inspired by an article by Larry Mogelonsky at HOTELSMag.com
(Screenshot appears at bottom...)
------------------------------------

My own first job in a hotel was working for a group of drug traffickers, who were using a pair of Durham, N. C. hotels as a money laundering operation.

I am not making this up.

After I left that job, I was actually questioned by North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (NCDPS - Alcohol Law Enforcement ) about their activities, told the ALE guys everything I knew (which amounted to . . . nothing at all other than that my former employers were people of highly questionable character, reputation, and wisdom - although by then, I wouldn't have put it past them at all to be involved in something like that, which was a big part of why I'd moved on to another job . . .). I then shared what I found out from the ALE guys with my former g.m. (we were still friends, and I was confident she wouldn't be involved in anything illegal); and while at first she didn't believe a word of it (she knew I didn't think too much of the company's 'owners'), I later learned from her, right after she resigned abruptly from that company, that I 'was right about them all along'.

The 400 in its younger days, as Durham's original Holiday Inn.

And I had been fixed up with that job by a Durham city councilman.

What would you do with an historic hotel built in the 1920s that was condemned and is now being given a new life as a boutique hotel?

Bring a large budget and a crowbar. And leave both of them locked up securely in the trunk of the car until you've checked out the neighborhood very thoroughly. 

(Of course, if in checking out the neighborhood, you think you might need to get to that crowbar in a hurry, I'd pass on that hotel. We'll get to that part.)

I love old hotels and old theatres (So much history yet to make... | You don't see this anymore... | Old theatres (Rockin' the Paradise . . .) and I've barely started on those Pinterest boards . . .  ), particularly those having some, at least local, historic significance. (The brand new Microtel on the next exit will be old in about 70 years, but not necessarily historic - 'cheap old' doesn't get it. The life expectancy of any building - like that of a person, and not entirely coincidentally - is seventy-something years. Yes, there are a lot of 80- or 100- or 200-year-old buildings out there, but in order to make that average work the way it does, there have to be an equal number that didn't make it past 40, or 50, or 60 . . .). 

But while a project like this can be rewarding in terms of more than just financial return, you want to be careful with your emotions on something this delicate and potentially tricky . . .

Here are some things you should know before you even begin.

Why are hotels often slow to innovate?

Because we don't have to if we don't want, so why the heck should we? 

Investment is risky. Leave things be, and we can still have enough people come in the door at a rate we kvetch and whine isn't high enough, to keep the property running in the black and get a low return that we kvetch and wine isn't high enough. And people have little to no patience with results that aren't immediately apparent. 

That's the way most people do it, anyway. Asking me why they don't innovate is like asking me, why would someone not eat, or why would someone not breathe? I can only speculate. But there are a lot of natural human flaws that get in the way, so some of this stuff even comes up for me more than I should let it.

So here goes with some speculation, based on my observations and experience over the years:

What is a good way to start a hotel chain?

It's tricky. I'm still working on it.

Any answer I give to this one is a work in progress: for now it is going to appear discreditable on grounds that I've been trying to do just that for the last five years or so and haven't quite scored any hits (insofar as finding a taker - or more specifically, a taker that I'd really want to sell such a venture to - on grounds that you have to start with just one or two 'independent, non-franchised' hotels; but 'independent' hotels are perceived as more risky than franchised hotels). I wish I could give you a better answer on how to do it, but if you're willing to accept an answer that better illustrates how do we intend to go about it, here goes.

First of all, ask yourself, why would anyone pick your brand, why would anyone prefer a hotel from your 'chain', and why would they remain so committed to it that they'll call you every time? And if you don't have not just one but several answers, maybe you shouldn't do it. There are many hotel chains and brands, but very few successful ones out there. If you don't have good answers to that question, your 'chain' will not grow very large or, without doing a lot of franchising, last very long. (But as I'll share with you as we continue, successful hotel franchising isn't a hotel management success or hotel brand success nowadays, it's a franchising success.)

We've developed two homegrown brands. (What makes us think we can do this? Michael Forrest Jones' answer to What is the impact of Online Travel Agencies like Expedia and Travelocity on the hotel business? | Michael Forrest Jones' answer to What is the average percentage of business a hotel owner can expect from brand-specific sources? - and we'll come back to the subject in this answer.)

How do hotels charge? (e.g., check-in is 1pm, check-out is 11am. If I am checking in at 3pm on Friday and leaving 10am Monday, how am I charged? Four days and three nights; or am I charged four full days?)

For your example, you get charged three nights.

To answer your question in a single sentence, if you don't want to know that much about it; your room, and any taxes that you pay on it, are applied at four a.m., give or take an hour, when we do the night audit. If you check out before the night audit, they will be manually applied. If you don't arrive until after the audit, they will be manually applied, and show up on the next day's revenue at the following night's night audit. (If the fact that you stayed four days, three nights, is a source of confusion, it's because we charge you per night, not per day.)

Still confused? Okay, Hotel Night Audit 101 coming up . . .

Each guest account (whether in-house, direct bill, or advance deposit), works just like your checking account at the bank.

Note the similarities between your check register (above) and a guest folio (below), that is, your 'bill' . . .

What was the first hotel with a restaurant inside?

You got the question wrong, it's "What came first, the egg or the chicken?"  Really. More likely, the question should be, what was the first Inn or "tavern" to include a hotel room? 

And the answer -- dating back from Bible times -- is probably lost to history. 



(We do have a time frame, if you consider the Bible a fairly accurate recorder of history. Christians, and those familiar with the life of Jesus and the Christmas story, know the story of how Jesus was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem at the time of his birth, and there was no room at the inn. It is the first mention in the Bible of an inn as a lodging place and by then, they were commonplace enough that people who read the Gospel of Luke would know what one was: Jesus tells the story of The Good Samaritan [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:25-37 - Lexham English Bible] - who is the first known customer to have a direct bill account [Bible Gateway passage: Luke 10:35 - Lexham English Bible ]. Sometime around 920 to 930 B. C., king Jeroboam invited a traveling prophet to stay at his home, as did another prophet on the way back [Bible Gateway passage: 1 Kings 13 - Lexham English Bible ] Prior to this - Lot and the visitors to Sodom, a traveler through the area of the tribe of Benjamin in the book of Judges - every instance you see of a traveler lodging somewhere for the night was either by invitation in a private home [sometimes that of a total stranger], or in a town square. So, it was in the near-millennium, between 930 B. C. and 4 B. C., that the inn as a commercial lodging establishment developed . . .)